This proposal requests funds to support personnel at UCSF/SFGH (West Bay Clinical Research Core) that will carry out clinical research projects (specific projects are to be determined later by a national steering committee) on patients with sickle cell disease. This proposal is for an infrastructure grant and human subjects will not be seen until 2003 at the earliest. A national steering committee, which will be formed in 2003, will select specific research projects which will then be submitted to the UCSF Committee on Human Research for approval. The West Bay program will be a component of the clinical core activities of the Northern California Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center(NCCSCC), to be located at Children's Hospital Oakland. The West Bay program has been in existence since 1978 and has participated in a variety of prior NCCSCC clinical research projects involving sickle cell disease patients. These include national multicenter studies of the clinical course of sickle cell disease (the cooperative study), pre-operative transfusion in sickle cell disease, etiology and clinical severity of the acute chest syndrome, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for symptomatic sickle cell disease (FHCRC Protocol 610), use of Flocor in patients in vaso-occlusive crisis, hydroxyurea in adults (including the long term follow study of these patients), seroprevalence and incidence of parvovirus B 19 infection in children with sickle cell disease, and a number of local Bay Area clinical research projects. Over 90 patients with sickle cell disease are currently available to participate in new research projects. The research personnel are experienced in the conduct of sickle cell clinical research. Both adult and pediatric clinical research centers are available at UCSF and will be utilized as appropriate, depending on the nature of the project.